There is a lot of talk on the internet about skipping breakfast, or rather having a large period of time between the previous evening's meal and the first meal the following day. Morning is my leisure time so I'm all about breakfast (and coffee). I'm really not a proponent of skipping meals, especially breakfast, but if it works for you and you don't get hungry until later in the morning or midday, then keep doing that if you are losing weight. That just doesn't work for me. My goal is to get a healthy dose of protein or fiber in the morning to help establish a feeling of satiation early in the day, which keeps me from snacking, and eating more calories later on.
For those of you who drink some sort of protein shake in the morning: I love that for you, ha-ha. I'm not a 'drink your meal' type of person. My sister-in-law swears by her meal shakes, which contain a bunch of seeds, nuts, veggies, fruit and protein powder. I once did a calorie count of her shakes at 500 plus calories, and If I'm going to eat that many calories, I want some substance in my stomach! Liquid meals are just not satisfying to me. My brother-in-law lives on Costco protein shakes. I'm definitely not a fan of this, as it is totally processed food, but it works for him. Several years ago, I used to love my husband's post bicycle ride smoothies made with frozen fruit, Greek Yogurt and protein powder.... until I learned how many calories they were. They negated the calories burned from the bike ride! I do miss them, however.
I'm assuming most people reading this blog are heading out to work or other activities in the morning, so breakfast is probably a hurried affair, maybe even a grab and go meal. The danger of those types of meals is that if you are not intentional about them, you end up consuming processed foods which are usually high in calories, low in nutrition, and chocked full of chemicals and other preservatives.
With a little meal planning, you can actually make yourself some healthy, low calorie, grab and go meals if you are willing to do some meal preparation ahead of time. You don't need to know more than just basic cooking skills, either.
I'm not a great cook. I'm probably very average. When I was first married, my husband used to tease me that I knew two temperatures on the stove: "off" and "high". Now I'm a little more enlightened.
The easiest and quickest breakfast I make is two eggs over hard and two slices of dried, diet bread toast. Two large eggs 143 calories, two slices of diet bread 90 calories. I either fry the eggs (over medium heat) in a pan sprayed with cooking oil spray or I use silicone egg cups I got on Amazon and microwave them for two minutes and 40 seconds on 40% power in my microwave. The microwave is even quicker than frying. That gives you a breakfast in less than ten minutes. If you need to rush out the door, put the cooked eggs between the toast and off you go. I mention microwave times because trial and error is really the only way to find the right microwave cooking time for eggs the way you like them. I like my eggs cooked hard. I would not recommend preparing eggs and toast ahead of time because toast can get soggy if you refrigerate it. However, if you use a low-calorie English Muffin (100 to 120 calories) or maybe a bagel (wide range of calorie counts) instead of toast, then you could make several breakfast sandwiches ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate and a quick minute in the microwave gives you a grab and go breakfast. You could also add some pre-cooked bacon or a half slice of low-calorie cheese to the sandwich as well, if you don't mind extra calories. If you choose those wisely, you will probably add another 40 calories to your sandwich.
Caution: If you decide to cook whole eggs in the microwave with the yolk intact, you need to poke a hole in the yoke with a fork and cover them with a microwave safe cover while they cook. They will still probably spit or burst and send a little egg debris flying in the microwave. Especially if you are in the 'trial and error' phase of figuring out cooking times. Give it time to cool a bit once you take it out of the microwave. Last week I didn't do this, and part of the egg 'hissed' and burst when I bit it. It didn't hurt but it was a really weird sensation.
One easy meal prep is to make some omelets ahead of time, freeze or refrigerate them and reheat them for breakfast. My go to cheese-less omelets (cheese-less because cheese has a lot of calories) include two eggs at 143 calories, 3 tablespoons of egg substitute at 25 calories, one or two tablespoons of tomato-based salsa at 15 calories, a chopped up fresh mini sweet pepper at 10 calories, any leftover cooked broccoli I might have in the refrigerator at 10-20 calories, maybe a few grape tomatoes sliced up, a bit of chopped up fresh spinach, salt, and pepper. I whisk the eggs, egg substitute, and salsa together, then mix the rest of the ingredients in and cook it in a small pan on the stove that is sprayed with cooking spray (no butter). I flip it over one time, cook until there is no liquid, and then fold it in half when removing it from the pan to a plate. It can be put in a container or a zip loc bag for freezing. It's easily reheated in the microwave.
When I was working insane hours as an accountant during tax season, I would make several batches of two-egg mixtures and put each one into its own oven-safe mini baking dish that had been sprayed with cooking oil spray. I would bake them at 375F for anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes depending on how brown they were on top and what extras were the egg mixture. Vegetables are watery so that impacts cooking time. Those baked omelets can be easily stored in the freezer. If you are not too calorie conscious, shred a potato (I used a cheese grater with large holes) and add enough potato to cover the bottom of your baking dishes before you pour the egg mixture over it. Then you can sprinkle shredded cheese on the top before baking. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it is completely cooked by sticking a table knife in the center of it. The knife should come out clean.
If you want the pseudo-omelet as a meal on-the-go, use a low-calorie wrap (I use L'Oven Fresh 60 calorie wraps from Aldi) to make a breakfast taco. You can incorporate the wrap while cooking the omelet. Make sure you use a pan that is big enough for the wrap to lie flat and cover the egg mixture and ample cooking oil spray. I had to switch pans to a bigger one from my normal omelet pan to do this. I think a bigger pan works better as your omelet is thinner and rolls more easily. After you pour the omelet mixture into the pan, wait a minute or so and place the wrap on right top of the mixture and cover the pan. Once the omelet has a chance to cook (no runny liquid), flip it over so the wrap is at the bottom of the pan now. One tip I learned is to use a heat-resistant bowl scraper type spatula instead of a regular cooking spatula. It's easier to maneuver the omelet with that. Let that wrap cook for a minute or so and if you are not concerned with calories, you can add some shredded cheese to the egg part, which is now face-up in the pan. As soon as it starts to melt a little, start rolling up the wrap in the pan until you have your 'tube' and there is your taco! It should roll up easily with the cooked egg mixture inside. I've tried this and it works. You can make a bunch of these and store them in the freezer as well.
When you don't need a breakfast on the go, one of my occasional breakfasts is oatmeal. I make it a little differently than most people. I start with a 1/2 cup of organic quick oats in a microwave safe bowl which is 150 calories. Then I sprinkle a bunch of cinnamon on the oats and mix it in with a spoon to coat the oats. Then for the liquid part, I use 1/2 cup of organic unsweetened applesauce at 25 calories, and a half cup of water. I stir all this together until it's all incorporated and there are no dry clumps of oats in the bowl. Then I add a half cup or less of organic frozen or fresh blueberries at 40 calories. I mix them in and microwave the bowl for two and a half minutes on high. This is a sit-down breakfast, for sure. If I feel like I might want more protein, I will also cook one egg at 74 calories in my silicone egg cup and eat that as well as the oatmeal. This is a very filling meal at 215 calories or 289 calories with the egg. My husband eats this meal as well, but he adds slivered almonds and walnuts to his oatmeal. That is too many calories for me, though. Surprisingly enough, the cinnamon and the applesauce give it enough flavor and sweetness so it's not so bland. You could always substitute some sort of milk for the water, but I've never done that so not sure how it would taste.
My sister has told me she has revisited her childhood with her new job, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as she works a very early shift. Peanut butter can be diet-friendly if you measure it. Two pieces of diet toast at 90 calories, with two tablespoons of peanut butter at 200 calories is a pretty decent meal, but it only contains roughly 7 grams of protein. Almond butter has equivalent calories but less protein. Nutella has equivalent calories as well but only 2 grams of protein, so I would avoid that as it won't be as filling.
There is not a lot of variety in my breakfast meals, but you can find creative ways to change it up. I've mentioned in other posts some of these things I have done. You can mash up fresh raspberries on a saucer, heat them in the microwave to make them jam-like and use that to spread on your toast. I did this just the other day. This would add maybe 30 to 40 calories to your meal. One tablespoon of peanut butter is about 100 calories, if you want to do that.
You can also consume Greek yogurt with berries for breakfast. One cup of Two Good Greek yogurt is about 160 calories and add in a 1/2 cup of berries and you have around a 200-calorie breakfast that is healthy and has protein. Zero preparation involved if you've already washed your berries. I try to buy fresh blueberries, raspberries or blackberries weekly to add to my yogurt as a snack.
I see a lot of recipes for "overnight oats." I've never tried them because the calorie count for the recipes I've seen online are more calories than what I normally eat for breakfast. However, if I was going to try it, here is what I would do: 1/2 cup of Two Good yogurt at 80 calories, 1/2 cup of organic quick oats 150 calories, some cinnamon, 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries or raspberries. I have zero idea if this would work, because I'm not sure if there is enough liquid in the Greek yogurt for the oats. The recipe I saw also adds milk so if you wanted to add a 1/2 cup of non-fat milk it would be about 40 calories extra. This breakfast would be 270 to 310 calories depending on the non-fat milk addition and could be even more calories depending on what else you add to the recipe. We don't drink milk, so I don't have it in the house. I suppose I could mix two tablespoons of half and half with enough water to equal 1/2 cup of water to get the equivalent, but who knows if that would work and taste okay.
I hope this motivates you to start your day with something healthy and diet-friendly. At the minimum I hope you got a chuckle over my post title. Hey, I thought it was clever!
(photo courtesy of Daniela Constantini)
